Warriors to Celebrate Black History Month Throughout February

The 2017 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors will celebrate Black History Month throughout February with numerous in-game activations, community outreach efforts and a multimedia partnership with BAYCAT Academy, a Bay Area nonprofit that educates, empowers and employs youth to produce digital media. The Warriors will spotlight Black History Month with videos featuring and honoring Bay Area leaders and influencers that will run throughout February during games at Oracle Arena and online.

The Warriors’ first home game of the month tonight will include a T-shirt giveaway (pictured below) for the first 10,000 fans inscribed with the motto “Black History is Golden,” which was coined by Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala and adopted by the Warriors organization for its Black History Month initiatives during the 2015-16 season. Beginning tonight and continuing throughout the month, elements of black history will be featured in signage and videos during the Warriors’ games at Oracle Arena. The videos, produced by the Warriors Studio team, include a segment with former Warrior Chris Webber (1993-94 NBA Rookie of the Year with Golden State), who collects black history memorabilia; interviews with Warriors legend Alvin Attles and Hall of Famer K.C. Jones, who were the first black coaches to face off in an NBA Finals in 1975, which the Warriors ultimately won; and a feature on Oakland Police Deputy Chief Leronne Armstrong, one of the first black ballboys at Oracle Arena.

On Feb. 10, the Warriors will hold a postgame symposium at Oracle Arena that addresses Black History Month and social issues. The discussion will feature a panel of sports leaders, including two-time Olympic gold medalist and WNBA legend Ruthie Bolton, alongside additional current and former athletes. The event will be emceed by KNBR radio personality Rod Brooks.

The Warriors’ partnership with BAYCAT Academy will feature prominently in the team’s Black History Month activation. It includes a music video, entitled “Black in the Bay,” which was inspired by the Warriors and created, produced and performed by two youth from BAYCAT Academy in Oakland, Isaiah and Angela. The full music video can be viewed below. In addition to the music video, BAYCAT Academy students will produce three other videos in the “Black in the Bay” series that address sports, community building and black business owners.

Golden State’s community outreach efforts will focus on topics related to Black History Month throughout February. Warriors guard Patrick McCaw and assistant coach/player development Chris DeMarco participated in a Read to Achieve Reading Rally, Presented by Ross Stores, yesterday at Sanchez Elementary School in San Francisco. The pair read books to the students, including I am Martin Luther King, Jr., by Brad Meltzer, in recognition of Black History Month. The Warriors will also host 90 sixth grade students from KIPP Bayview Academy for a field trip to the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco as part of the Learning Without Limits Program, Presented by ABD, on Feb. 26. In addition, for the third consecutive year, Warriors employees will volunteer through their Helping Hands program to read to 11 classrooms of students at Hoover Elementary School as part of the Oakland Public Education Fund’s African-American Literature Read-In on Feb. 27.